Superior multi-level cache, including shared L3 cache. o New high-end systems architecture that delivers from two to three times more peak bandwidth and up to four times more realized bandwidth (depending on configuration) as compared to today's Intel® Xeon™ processors.

Performance-enhances dynamic power management. For developers, this means improved performance and energy-efficiency for existing software, and the opportunity to further optimize software to take full advantage of Intel SSE4.2 and the microarchitecture enhancements available in Nehalem.

Check out the articles and links below to learn more about the Intel Core i7 Platform and Intel SSE4. Learn how they will help you create applications with superior performance and energy-efficiency.

Introduction to Intel® Core i7

Introduction to Core i7 Audio/Video presentation that introduces the new features of the Intel Core i7 processor family and the Intel Core i7 platform. (Requires Flash)

"Intel Instruction Set Architecture Leadership 2009 and Beyond" Presentation from IDF 2008 that discusses the new SSE4.2 instruction in Intel Core i7 processors.

Tuning your application for the Intel Core i7 processor: This presentation contains the best-known methods for maximizing performance of your software for the Next Generation Core i7 microarchitecture (Nehalem) family. It discusses tuning guidelines with Intel® Hyper Threading Technology, Memory Bandwidth, and Cache utilizations, pluss code generation optimizations for Nehalem that will be available in the upcoming Intel Compiler. (Requires Flash)

Need more information or support in enabling your software for the Intel® Core i7 processor Family

The Intel Developer Zone has two forums to address developer questions for the Intel Core i7. Both the Parallel Programming and Multi-Core CPU architecture forums provide direct access to the Intel engineering team and the software developers working with the newest Intel Technology. Post a question or share your expertise today.

Check out the Multi-Core Software Blogs for the latest opinions and feedback from engineers working with Multi-Core architecture and developing Parallel Application.

Check out this quick video to see what Software Companies are saying about the Intel Core i7 processor.

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I might say I am a bit late to the party (I got my hands on a Core i7 only now), but I am already missing some info.

What is the proper way (and where it is documented) to detect correct number of physical and logical cores? The old method used for Core 2 doesn't work, and the CPU (i7-920) is reporting maximum possible thread count of 16 instead of factory configured 8.

I see a lot of software having issues with core count detection -- one of them is Photoshop CS4 which doesn't see 4 physical cores as it should and Chris Cox just stated on the John Nack's blog (here: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/06/unintended_humor.html#comments) that Intel has written the (broken) core count detection code for them.

CPU was out in November 2008, last AP-485 is dated March 2009 and it doesn't mention any caveats when detecting the number of physical and logical cores.

In my opinion, those Intel CPU engineers who are dealing with topology reporting should really stop fiddling around and changing the detection method each time new CPU comes out -- let the damn interface settle already instead of allowing someone's shortsighted design to trouble everyone from small developers to big companies alike.